Working at the Margins in Interwar Yugoslavia

Prostitutes, beggars, folk healers, peddlers, wandering artists, and bear-leaders: Working at the Margins in Interwar Yugoslavia shows how work shaped their relations with the state and the rest of their world. The protagonists of the book’s story lived on the fringes of society and engaged in activities that were only partially recognized, from a legal and social point of view, as proper jobs, while some of them had no job at all. This book looks at Yugoslavia’s disciplining and social engineering practices through the lens of socially marginal workers. The analysis shows that in this period the South Slav regions entered a new, more radical phase of social disciplining. Yet, it is not simply a history of social marginalization and repression; this book also tells a story of active protests, unexpected compromises, and resistance. Too often overlooked, the socially marginalized deserve study. What emerges is a fascinating world, a space of values, ideas, and practices that played an important role in shaping interwar Yugoslav history.